EGYPT: President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated Bashteel main line station in Giza, west of Cairo, on October 12.
Also referred to as the Upper Egypt hub, Bashteel has been built to relieve the congested hub at Ramses, located to the east in the city centre.
Hassan Allam Construction and Hassan Allam Roads & Bridges acted as lead contractors for the Ministry of Transportation.
Bashteel hub has been built as a new structure to a southern edge of a triangle and features platforms both on the south-to-north and the south-to-east curves, with the former north-to-east curve being closed. The homonymous station slightly north has also been closed.
Bashteel is claimed to be the largest station in the country with a capacity of 250 000 passengers a day. The station features a total of 11 platforms for passenger and freight trains. The four-storey terminal covers a total area of 31 000 m2 and features a multi-storey car park and a mosque.
Adjacent the station building, rolling stock storage and repair facilities have also been built.
The station is to be served by the 6th of October Monorail (also known as the West Nile Monorail) which is currently under construction.
- The government approved a project to build a railway line linking El-Robaiky to Bilbeis via the 10th of Ramadan City on October 2. The 63·5 km railway is to be taken forward in collaboration with the French development agency AfD. It would be built as a single track on the El-Robaiky – 10th of Ramadan City section, with provision for doubling later, and as double-track from 10th of Ramadan to Bilbeis. It will not be electrified at the outset.
